Love is Eternal

Love is Eternal

With firm determination Vikram carried Betal again and Betal began with another narration. On the banks of river Yamuna, in a town lived a Brahmin named Keshav who earned his living by performing pooja in temples. One day a foreigner named Haridutt visited the temple. When Keshav Pandit asked him where he was from, he said that he had been roaming about from one state to another. Keshav then asked him why he was not staying at one place. He replied that he would go where ever his destiny took him. Keshav then said that one only sticks to a place when there is either of the three reasons, that is faith, duty or love. And he would settle when one of these reasons came his way. Just then Keshav’s daughter Madhumalati came to call her father for lunch. As soon as Haridutt saw her, he fell in love with her. He expressed to Keshav, his wish to get married to Madhumalati. Meanwhile at Keshav Pandit’s house, a businessman had come with a proposal to get Madhumalati married to his son Waman since Waman had decided to marry Madhumalati. Keshav’s wife accepted the proposal and promised them that Madhumalati would be married to Waman. Meanwhile, Madhumalati’s brother went to see his Guruji. His friend Madhusudan was also sitting there. Guruji told Madhumalati’s brother that Madhusudan wanted to marry Madhumalati and asked him to talk to his parents about it. Her brother immediately accepted the proposal and on behalf of his parents he promised to get his sister married to Madhusudan.

Later, all three- father, mother and brother argued trying to defend their promises and each one of them wanted Madhumalati to get married to their choice. While this argument was going on at Keshav Pandit’s house, Haridutt, Waman and Madhusudan dreamt of getting married to Madhumalati. Just then something shocking happened. Madhumalati was bitten by a snake. She turned blue with poison. Two snake charmers tried to take out the poison but in vain. Haridutt, Waman and Madhusudan had also reached there but Madhumalati died. After her death, Madhusudan said that he could not live in the same place so he went away and lived a life with asceticism. Waman took the ashes of Madhumalati’s dead body and roamed around in jungles. Haridutt could not part with her ashes so he kept it with him and built a hut and live his life in the same vicinity. All three went their own ways. While Madhusudan was travelling, he stopped at a scholar’s house. He had food there. He praised the food. The scholar said that his daughter had made that food for her husband. Just then a few men came with her husband’s dead body. The scholar could not see his daughter lamenting so he brought back his son-in-law to life with the help of Sanjeevani Vidya. That night, Madhusudan stole the book of Sanjeevani Vidya and went to the crematorium where Haridutt was living. Meanwhile Waman had also come there. Madhusudan showed them the book and told them to give it a try. Madhumalati came back to life and then again all three wanted to get married to Madhumalati.

After this, Betaal stopped and asked Vikram as to who should Madhumalati get married to, Madhusudan who brought her back to life, Waman who kept her ashes with him or Haridutt who built a hut in the crematorium and lived there along with her ashes. Once more Betaal forced Vikram to reply or else he would break his head into pieces. Vikram replied that Madhumalati should get married to Haridutt because Madhusudan gave her life which is given by parents and so he acted as her father, Waman went with her ash which is done by a son so he performed the duty of a son and Haridutt lived in the crematorium like a true lover and husband. Thus, Madhumalati got married to Haridutt. Betaal was happy with his intelligent answer but once more Vikram made the mistake of speaking and Betaal flew away.